Discovering Raditaz

Read here about Raditaz, which I hadn’t heard about before. It’s a competitor to Pandora. Some differences: unlmited skips, no ads, geo-location.

I started out by setting up three “stations,” based on three artists: Lowell George, Seldom Scene and Mike Auldridge. I’m on the Mike Auldridge station now, and guess what comes up? Dig:

Not just a great Mike Auldridge album cut, but a cover by Ray Simone, my late good friend and business partner, about whom I wrote this yesterday and this last month. It’s like seeing a friendly ghost.

Anyway, some first impressions and thoughts…

Need an Android and iPad app [Later… See the top comment below, with better information than I had when I first wrote this.]

Would like integration with creative terrestrial stations like KEXP, KCRW, WMBR, WFUV, et. al. (I other words, FM still cuts it. Think symbiosis, not just competition)

Would like opportunity for comments with skips, thumbs up and thumbs down. A skip isn’t always a dislike, or a preference. Sometimes it’s just curiousity at work.

The Twitter link works well. Give us a short URL for the current song.

Need more genres and decades. How about the ’50s?

Idea: Let listeners add their own audio — to be their own DJs — for some of the tunes. Make the ability a paid premium service

Work with the VRM development community on EmanciPay. Hey, some of us might like to pay more per play than SoundExchange wants. If you’re interested, DM me at @dsearls or dsearls at cyber dot law dot harvard dot edu.

Add a back button.

Make one’s whole listening history available as personal data one can copy off and use on their own.

Says here, “when you create a new station, your station is automatically assigned geographical coordinates so other users can find your station in our map view or when browsed on our explore page.” That’s cool, but what if my head or heart aren’t really where I am when I create a station? I do like exploring the map, though. Listening right now to Johnny Cash from Cleveland, while I’m in Boston.

3 comments

Raditaz does have an Android app but it does not work on Android Tablet and the iPhone app works on iPad but it is, alas, still just an iPhone app – so perhaps by Android you meant Android Tablet?

If you find where your station’s default location (where you are) isn’t where you want it, if you are logged in you can Edit it and press Edit Location where you can move it anywhere you want to — you can also do this on the web site. (Just don’t move it outside a U.S. or Canadian Territory; we are using Sound Exchange for licensing right now so we can’t show stations outside our license range.)

Great suggestions – we will eventually have Sonos integration (pretty quickly, once we get to it). This is actually one of the most complete and original set of suggestions I have ever seen. @RaditazPete

Good luck improving an already excellent service. Call on me (and the VRM community) for help, any time.

As you might guess, I’m a radio veteran from way back. I’ve been hell-bent on reforming it for the duration, and love it when original new services come along with the promise to shake up what needs to be shaken, and to build new roads to the future.

Nice review and I now have a few good pointers to work with on my own endeavors. Although I’m a baseball fan (and sports nut) I can’t help but admit that it’s music that gives me the deepest feelings and though. Thanks!